After reading the gardening post about the tubs, I'm curious as to what plants you suggest as a good base for a beginning garden
There aren’t really “Beginner” plants, and unless you’re doing MAJOR soil amendment you don’t need to plant one thing before another really. (If you are doing Major soil amendment I reccomend asking @systlin about her expiriences un-suburbanizing her yard). Therefore, you really only need to tailor your garden to two things:
1. Your local climate: You can find your Hardiness Zone Here, based on your average summer and winter temperatures. Some plants won’t tolerate high heat, others won’t mature if they don’t have a long enough growing season. You can search online or ask at your local garden center what plants do well in your area.
2. How much effort you want to put into your garden: Some plants are fussy, others you can throw some dirt on and forget. I’m what you’d call a “Lazy As Fuck” Gardener, so I like planting local flowering plants becuase they do well with minimal attention, are very pretty and feed the local pollinators. I do some veggies too, but don’t get very emotionally invested in them, which seems to encourage them to try harder.
Also consider if you want:
Annual Plants: Grow for just the one season and then die. Most food crop plants are annuals, but some will re-seed themselves. Annuals are changeable- if you plant an annula and find out you don’t care for it, you can just not plant it the next year, or if you really like it, you can plant more of it next year.
Perennial Plants: Grow up from the roots every year or habitually re-seed themselves, so you’ll have it year after year. You won’t have to buy new seeds or started plants, but if you don’t like it you’ll have to make some effort to remove it.
Some suggested Hardy Plants that won’t die if you mess up caring for them a bit, and do well in a variety of climates:
Annuals: Peas, beans, Zucchini*, Sunflowers, Tomatoes and Corn.
Perenials: Irises, Day Lillies, Peonies, Potatoes and Onions/garlic**
*Only plant ONE zucchini unless you really, really Love Zucchini, and pick them early befor ethey get huge and woody. They’re BIG producers.
**Green/Scallion Onions can be harvested the year you plant them, Big ones like Yellow and Red onions won’t be mature until the summer AFTER you plant them, but they require virtually no effort, and you can eat the leaves as Onion Greens in the meantime.